All roads lead to Dumaguete for CVIRAA meet

CEBU CITY, Philippines— About 10,000 student athletes from Central Visayas will gather in Dumaguete City from February 17 to 22, 2020 for the Central Visayas Regional Athletics Association (CVIRAA) Meet.

This will be the second straight year that Dumaguete City, the capital of Negros Oriental, will be hosting the CVIRAA Meet, which serves as the selection tournament for the Central Visayas representatives to the Palarong Pambansa.

Aside from Dumaguete, two other areas have been eyed to host the regional meet, Cebu City and Tagbilaran City in Bohol, which hosted  the CVIRAA in 2017.

Cebu City gave in to Dumaguete as they will be using it as a dry run for its hosting of the 11th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) School Games later in 2020.

The Cebu City Niños have always formed the core of Central Visayas to the Palarong Pambansa as they have always finished as the overall champions of the CVIRAA Meet.

Last year, the Niños dominated with an overall gold-silver-bronze medal tally of 78-60-76.

At far second was Bohol Province with its medal count of 46-64-57 while rounding up the top 3 was Lapu-Lapu City which had a medal tally of 44-22-27.

Host delegation Dumaguete City finished at fourth overall with a medal haul of 37-43-40.

The CVIRAA will be ushered in by a parade of athletes from the Capitol Area to Freedom Park to the Perdices Coliseum where the opening program will be held on February 17.

The closing and awarding ceremonies on February 22 will be held at the Lamberto Macias Sports and Cultural Complex.

Sporting events to be contested are archery, athletics, arnis, badminton, billiards, baseball, basketball,  3 on 3 basketball, boxing, chess, football,  futsal, sepak takraw, softball, swimming, tennis, table Tennis, taekwondo,  volleyball, wrestling, wushu, pencak silat,  gymnastics, aero gymnastics and dancesport. /bmjo